Knox's Stand(65)

“Thank God,” Pastor Dean declared, standing up.

“It was nice to meet you, Pastor Dean, and I think I will take you up on your invitation. I’ll see you Sunday.”

“It was nice to meet you, too, Diamond.” Pastor Dean left her office, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he left, Diamond went to her desk phone, pushing in Knox’s number. She wanted to talk to him. She didn’t know what she would say, she just wanted to hear his voice. He didn’t answer on her first call, he didn’t answer the next six times she called, nor did he return any of her texts or messages. After an hour of failed attempts, Diamond left her office, going to her car.

She had somewhere to go now.

Driving carefully through the tears clouding her vision, she went in search of the one person who could make it better.





Chapter Nineteen



No one was home as Diamond put her key into the door, going inside the quiet house. It was ironic that the last few weeks her parents had called and Diamond hadn’t returned their calls, yet now that she wanted someone to talk to, no one was around. Diamond walked around the empty house, unsure of what to do. She went outside onto the back porch, sitting in the swing that faced the yard. Her foot gently sent the swing into motion.

She heard the back door open and close. “Diamond? Why are you sitting out here? It’s freezing out.”

Her father walked around to the front of the swing.

“What’s wrong?” He sat down beside her.

“I love Knox. I love him so much.” Diamond buried her face in her hands. “I don’t even know why I love the big jerk.” Her father put his arm around her shoulder. Diamond turned to him, crying on his shoulder.

“How does he feel?” Her father looked over his shoulder to his wife and Sex Piston standing silently behind the swing. He started to get up and let his wife handle the situation, but Sizzle shook her head.

“He doesn’t love me back.” Diamond cried harder.

“Are you sure?” Her father pulled her closer.

“Yes, now he won’t even talk to me.”

“Then make him,” he said matter-of-factly.

“What?” Diamond looked up from his shoulder.

“Make him talk to you. It’s what your mother did.”

“When?” Diamond couldn’t remember her parents ever even having an argument.

Her father took a deep breath. “When you girls were little, we broke up for a while. We argued over custody so we decided to live together until you girls were older. It was the worst six months of my life. I loved your mom, but she was sick of me putting the Destructors first. She didn’t want me to leave the club, she just wanted equal time. I was stupid and put the club first and you guys second. When I missed Sex Piston’s birthday party, she’d had it. Living with your mom and yet not being with her was terrible. I’m ashamed to say I did stupid shit that I regret, that I will always regret, Diamond.”

“How did you get back together?” Diamond asked.

“It was because of you, Diamond.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”

“After you saw me at the club with that woman and didn’t talk to me, your mom and I talked. She couldn’t understand the change in you towards me. You went from being a daddy’s girl to not wanting to sit at the dinner table with me, so yeah, she knew something was wrong.”

“How did you know?”

“One of my men saw you running from the back of the club. When I got home I could tell from the way you treated me that you had seen. I didn’t know what to say to you, and your mother finally made me tell her. It was the worst day of my life, confessing I had cheated on her and had been for a long time. The thing was, she had known all along and that was another reason she’d had a problem with the club. We talked all day and night, Diamond, and worked it all out, but I paid for that day for years. It destroyed my relationship with you and your mother wouldn’t marry me for a long time. I had lost her trust; it took all these years to get it back, but I lost my little girl forever.

“Diamond, go after Knox, make him talk to you.” Her father looked at her with watery eyes.

“But you loved mom, Knox doesn’t even care about me.”

“He ever give you a nickname? Even when you were messing around?” Her father turned red at his question.

“No.”

“Not once?” he pressed.

“No, he always called me Diamond.”

“Do you know why we called you Diamond?” her father asked, his voice gruff.

“No.”

“Because the second we saw you, we knew you were going to be the most precious thing in the world to us. Our precious jewel, our little Diamond.”